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Robert Priddy

I was 78 as of this September (2014), & am healthy and with unimpaired mind and memory, untroubled by beliefs I once held and investigated until they collapsed, so that wider and deeper understanding took their place. It is liberating to defend the facts and truth that have been made known to me. [I was for many years the national leader of Sai Baba's organization in Norway] I have a duty to aid those who Sai Baba deceived as I once promoted him. Many have contacted me for advice. Click on image above to see the full story.

The Sai Central Trust can do anything without the public knowing a whit about its transactions, despite their declaration that “All transactions of the Trusts are duly accounted in their books of account. An experienced and qualified chartered accountant oversees the accounting and financial management. The accounts are duly audited by a reputed firm of Chartered Accountants based at Delhi. Periodical returns, accounts and audit reports as prescribed by law are duly filed with the concerned authorities under the Income Tax Act, FCRA and other applicable statutes.”

The Trust is totally unaccountable to anyone but secret political cadres, who are generally known to be corrupt nest-feathering officials whom the system, as it is, cannot bring to book due to its in-built functions based on corruption. The Trustees have any amount of funds with which to bribe anyone, and they have a legal network of Sai-devoted High Court judges – with ex-Chief Justice Bhagwati as their ideal (see Sai Baba’s Bhagwati shows total disrespect for justice)

Now we see how the great miserly hoard the Trust denied existed, is being spirited away in vans and only the poor driver and minor go-betweens get caught. The Trustees are clever at cover-up and hand-outs as it has been a main part of their business since the bedroom executions in 1993 in which some trustees had a hand in blackmailing the police to carry out (notably Colonel Joga Rao, deceased)!

The Supreme Court of India was instituted through P.N. Bhagwati – a life-long Sathya Sai Baba devotee and director of his charitable trust. This court destroyed its record of a petition made to it by Hari Sampath (former security guard at Sai Baba’s ashram) and presented by famous lawyer Kamini Jaiswal. The deletion of the official record meant that Embassies – especially the UK Embassy in Delhi – could not get confirmation that the petition had ever been made or a decision handed down. However, a copy of the court decision document evaded their attention – attested as genuine by a justarius publicus – and a scan of it is shown here The issue is treated here.

The injudicious P.N. Bhagwati also signed the egregious letter against Sai critics along with the then Prime Minister, Vajpayee, despite the fact that no a single investigation of any kind had been undertaken by any of the signatories or any other official body in India, while the Supreme Court Petition was thrown out by judges who were Sai followers. The authorities even subverted the Right to Information Act to stop the Indian Skeptic’s Basava Premanand from obtaining any information on any investigation that may have been made… because none were (of course).

The Sathya Sai Central Trust has managed to retain a certain reputation among devotees, its donors and most of the Indian press, despite revelations of embezzlement and more when the press descended on Prashanthi Nilayam after the murders and executions in Sai Baba’s rooms in June 1993. That trust has been rapidly eroded since the rigid confinement of Sathya Sai Baba – visits by devotees and family strictly prohibited – imposed by doctors and Trust members from the beginning of his illness until his highly suspicious death… evidently arranged to occur on Easter Sunday, as if this would convince any but the most deluded Christian Sai-devotees of any real connection between SB and Christ! The one revelatory incident after the other came in startling succession, eroding what credibility of the unaccountable and secret Trust – and certain of its trustees may have retained (most notably ex-Justice P.N. Bhagwati and the power-hungry nephew Ratnakara).
It’s clearly a fight now between SB trust members …a pro Ratnakar camp and a pro Satyajit camp….apparently a diary and also the will of Sai Baba had been found which states Satyajit should be given prominence in the trust, maybe head it too. But Ratnakar is unhappy and feels giving Satyajit the SB ‘vidya vahini’ (i.e. Sai education) project was more than sufficient. Bhagwati is pro Satyajit and hence threatened to quit the trust, but was pacified. My informant reports that, the “day before yesterday in a trust meeting, several trust members walked out in a huff.. Some trust members are being spied upon by Ratnaker’s agents. My sources tell me that Trust legal advisor Naganand has actually admitted a will was found.”

On top of this dogfight – somewhat reminiscent of nights at Prashanthi Nilayam – comes the revelation in an Indian newspaper which ex-devotees have known for ages, but which has never previously been stated directly by any media outlet in India, that Sathya Sai Baba was for many years had in Bangalore a regular supplier of the trinkets – rings, pendants, bracelets and much else – that he pretended to ‘materialize’ in his interviews. These he often said contained diamonds, but not one has been found that was genuine despite numerous dissidents who took them to professional assayers.

The journalist who wrote the Express report naively quoted the obvious lie that the pile-up in the mandir was due to Sai Baba not having met devotees for months. Anyone who knows anything about the true state of affairs is aware that Sai Baba never gave away anything of such considerable value to interviewees as genuine diamonds, gold or silver bullion or large sums of cash – he gave away a number of gold rings and a few small silver medallions and yet fewer small gold statues, but mainly cheap panchaloka (i.e. five-metal alloy) and enamel ornaments, watches (most often cheap ones) and even plastic earrings (a Norwegian lady recieved some and was not impressed!!

In interviews, obviously, he never gave away from his huge store of dried fruits or biscuits, perfumes, Nike or Adidas shoes, plates, tumblers, hairspray or most of the other objects stored away under his bed and in cupboards and secret hidey holes. He may have provided such items for some of his chosen student boys… and as bribes here and there, but most of it was simply hoarded. How he could have become such a squirrel is hard to explain, unless as a symptom of senility (which was increasingly more evident in his behaviour and appearance through the last five years at least).

In the light of the extraordinary revelations at Puttaparthi of millions of dollars worth in currency and valuables, a fleeing Sathya Sai Central Trust van weighed down with millions in treasure beyond what has already been found, police arrests of the van occupants, and other such drama, I recommend Barry Pittard’s article, Sai Baba, Kubla Khan, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates et alia – as an entertaining, informative, read on the longer-term background. Typical of much of Pittard’s work, this article provides useful links for media and other researchers, as well as for those in the process of relinquishing their connection with the international Sathya Sai Organisation. There is a collection of photos of the extraordinarily lavish appointments at Sai Baba’s ashrams.